Conditions this weekend seam to be very good iv had 7 contacts with 26 division yesterday and looking on cluster dx there good again today so I'm popping out to put the t2lt up today fingers crossed 🤞

It's in the diary!

The only downside I can see is that I'm normally the furthest East station, when I go out West to Blackdown there won't be any one further away than Adam in Hastings to push the distance further. I need to get Matt in strood mobile and sitting on my Hastingleigh perch        

Oh the things I do for radio  been out today to find another mountain on the north massadonion border found a nice spot at 3000 foot asl so decided to use that for tonight drive up there this evening with my radio bag t2lt ect ect lap top and of course lots of snacks set up hearing a few stations Spain mainly bearing in mind I'm in the middle of nowhere pitch black I see a set of headlights aproching. Car pulls up next to me speaking in Bulgarian. Bugger it's boarder police luckily one spoke very good English so I got questioned of what I'm doing here obviously over here there aren't any silly sods driving up hills (mountains) to talk on radio 😂 I won't give up and I was feeling good about tonight felt the cq gods were looking down on me 😁 73s from mountain Mike 178ct009

Hell all and welcome

Time for another episode of "Ray Reviews" the Monday Night, South Coast, Channel 14 PMR Net.
Held on Monday 5th of October 2026

My set up for the net was the Baofeng UV5R handy and the car battery 🔋 powered CRT SPACE U sending all of it's 15 watts out via the "Dean" made Di-pole.

PMR analogue channel 14 is where it is held and you don't need any tones or codes to join in. Just set set your radio on NFM and call in with your name, handle or callsign (remember not to use your amateur one if you have a licence 🙂😉)

My location was a busy Radio Corner, Ashdown 🌴 Forest in the county of East Sussex.

The net is scheduled to start at 20:30 🕣 and finish from 23:00 🕚 UK time

With the when, where and how sorted, on with my list of check in's and who heard and or worked who.

1. 14 UVR 244 - Philippe - Department 14 - Normandy - France 🟦⬜🟥🥇
2. 14 FRS 119 - Jacky - Department 50 - Grenville - Normandy - France 🟦⬜🟥
3. CT 3466 - "Radar" Ray - Ashdown 🌴 Forest - East Sussex
4. Craig - Ashdown 🌴 Forest - East Sussex - Was a pleasure to meet you, I like your logging system and using a handy
5. Lima 93 - Luke - Ashdown Forest - East Sussex - With Caz and Puppy, also using a handy
6. Tango 187 - Toby - Ashdown 🌴 Forest - East Sussex - With M1KA 🐶, K9 security 🚨 for Radio Corner
7. CT 1829 - Dean - Lewes - East Sussex - Mobile 🚗
8. Ratty 248 - Chris - Ashdown 🌴 Forest - East Sussex
9. Witchy Women - Vicky - Ashdown 🌴 Forest - East Sussex - Shotgun with Chris a preparing for the end of the month.
10. Delta 31 - Adam - Hastings - East Sussex
11. MB 01 - Craig - Ashdown 🌴 Forest - East Sussex - Motorbike 🏍 mobile
12. CT 4610 - Andy - Ashdown 🌴 Forest - East Sussex - 1st location of the night
13. CT 5480 - Jonny 5 - Plumpton - East Sussex
14. Charlie - Lewes - East Sussex - Using a handy
15. CT 5617 - Joe - Minster - Kent
16. CT 5464 - Matt in the Garage - Hailsham - East Sussex
17. CT 5159 - Neil - Mereworth - Kent
18. TK 8 - George - Tonbridge - Kent
19. C V M - Nigel - Crowborough - East Sussex
20. GCB 159 - Paul - Newhaven - East Sussex
21. RHP 285 aka Joker - Steve - Reigate Hill - East Sussex
22. DDB 66 - Tony - Brighton - East Sussex
23. Lino - Caterham - Surrey - Walking the dog and using a handy
24. CT 4515 - John - Brighton - East Sussex
25. CT 5502 - Paul - Reigate Hill - Surrey
26. CT 9484 - Mark - Haslemere - Surrey - Using a handy
27. CT 4610 - Andy - Horley - Surrey - 2nd location of the night
and me
28. CT 2290 - Ray - Ashdown 🌴 Forest - East Sussex - Occasionally using a handy and In the Chair 💺

Now for the Scores on the Doors and some of the contacts made from Radio Corner.

1 bag of Shortbread biscuits eaten
28 in the Log
1 Coffee drunk
6 People having a go with hand held's
2 Divisions worked (14 & 26 division)
3 Counties worked



Do you know what happened on this date in history?

1916 Hitler is wounded during the Battle of the Somme
1930 See's a British Airship crash in France with the death of 48 people
1945 See's a riot at the the gates of Warner Bros. studio's in Hollywood
1946 Newcastle Utd beat Newport 13-0
1962 The James Bond film "Dr No", premieres in London
1969 "Monty Pythons Flying Circus" premieres on BBC 1

That about wraps things up. Cheers for taking the time to read the review and, if you have spotted a mistake or worse I have left you off the list. Let me know so I can correct it.

73 all the best till next time

Ray 2290 with the pens and note book 📝

Quote from: Mountain Mike on Oct 06, 2026, 08:13 PMWhen's the next one due ray

Will need to talk to my supervisor about availability, so watch this space. . . . 

Quote from: Neil M/stone on Oct 04, 2026, 01:17 PMYep that's what I was thinking. Not sure i'd get Reigate either as its partially screened by Leith Hill, but with my 5 element portable beam set up and 270m height, i'd hope for some good contacts.

Its a portable location only, with the nearest car parks either 15 mins walk or an 80m steep climb!!! Its a 1 1/2 hours drive from me so for a normal net i'd need to wild camp somewhere after (and the woods at the top aren't ideal). Alternatively, I could go on one of the longer mondays next summer and transmit 8.00 - 10.00 and drive home? Maybe i could swap next years net birthday expedition to a summer jaunt

     

As we discussed on the net, what about something for Monday 21st of June 2027? 🤔

OMG!

As a CBer and occasional sender/receiver of QSL cards, I would feel let down and peeved to get this.

The old feel, I kinda like, if it was celebrating 50 years of something from the 70's, that would warrant an old style card. But this looks, in my opinion to be lazy work, even the callsign goes outside of the boundary because it wasn't resized to fit!

Yep, it's the pits   as a QSL service!
Had another 4 days ago (02/10/2026) with a QSO date of 20/02/2025 when I was a foundation holder so even further back in time than my previous posted in this thread.

Great write-up Ray, nice to see Europe popping in
Count me in for the next one too looking forward to testing out the conditions.

18 months for that? Talk about postal time travel... At least it finally turned up, even if it looks like it was printed in 1978